It is hard to think about what I expect to see there. I expect to see cheaper prices for food and movies then I would see at my local grocery store or video store. I also expect that all three places will be small in size then what I am use to. They may not have a variety regarding food, movies, and even design of their homes. I also think that everything will be very close together in terms of the homes. When thinking about the grocery store I think that there will be many generic brands and less well known brands. I think the same will happen with the movies. It's hard to think about what I think I will see in the trailer park, because I am not very familiar with trailer parks.
When looking at the third question I believe that I am an outsider. I am not familiar with the community at all, so therefore what I see would probably be similar to what a "outsider" would see. I also think that everyone has different perception of ideas and the way they observe things. My view will be much different then those of the people in live in that community, considering I do not live there and I am getting familiar with the area. Another interesting aspect maybe that the school that I am placed at is on the border of 2 school districts. Thinking about that alone, I think that the area that my school is in will look different then the Waterford area as a whole. I think that different parts of Waterford will look different depending on where you are in the area. Honestly I think this is a hard question to answer or look at considering I am not part of their community. Even though I am a teacher in that community I wouldn't consider myself as part of their community yet.
After community visit
When my group and I were on the visit there were a lot of things I noticed, and many things that surprised me. I noticed that there were a few homes in the trailer park area. I assumed there would be many more, especially from everything I had heard from the teachers about many students coming from that area. I also noticed that the trailers were very close together and seemed very basic. When we went to the grocery store I noticed that when we walked in there was a security guard at the entrance. I also noticed that he roomed the store and watched shoppers. The size was a little larger then I assumed. I also noticed that there were many generic brands in the store and many items were on sale. Something else I noticed about the grocery store, which did surprise me was that there was a huge Hispanic isle. I didn't realize how big of a Hispanic community there was. When we went to the movie store I noticed that there was a lot of deals that the store had to offer.
There were many aspects about the places I went to that really surprised me. I was surprised at how few trailer homes there were. I was also surprised by how large of a rental community the area really was. When I went to the grocery store the one thing that really stood out to me, was the massive amounts of alcohol the store sold. The store was pretty small and size and it seemed as though a quarter of the store was taking up by alcohol sales. I would have assumed that for such a small store there would have only been an isle, or half an isle for this type of item. The security guard at the front of the store also really surprised me. I was not expecting that nor am I use to anything like that in my local grocery stores. When we went to the video store I was surprised at how many movies the store had to offer. I was expecting a very limited selection, but in fact there was just as many, if not more, videos to choose from compared to my local video store. The prices were also extremely reasonable.
This assignment definitely opened my eyes to a new community. I was able to see what was around me and see what my kids enjoy doing. I was able to talk to my students and find out where they enjoy going. I was able to take a deeper look into it and see the similarities and differences from my own community. By looking at the community I was able to learn more about my students and there everyday lives. I was able to take things that they know and try and understand them in order to teacher and relate to my students. After visiting the grocery store, I thought back to my students who said they had parents who worked there. I am able to think back now and try and relate these ideas and there places to their everyday life in order to teacher and relate materials.
This project will most definitely help me with my teaching. I will not be able to look back at the community and try and make lessons that relate. For example, they can write about their neighborhood or there family for me to better understand them. I can make a writing assignment out of what I learned from the community or see what similarities I noticed verses what the students think about their community. I think in general I will be able to plan a lot more lesson plans, in all subjects, that can relate to the surrounding community. I believe that if I can connect with the students to something they enjoy or something they can relate to, they will better understand the subject. They may even be more interested.
This will help me to better understand the background of literacy my students have. Although this doesn't show me there personal life and there personal background, it shows me what they are exposed to on a near everyday basis. I will also be able to understand some of the places my students talk about. I will know more about them and their community. I think this project will have a positive effect on my ability to teacher and cater to my students needs. When reading the Compton article the section about teachers study really stood out to me. When reading that section is really reminded me of this assignment. It is a way for teachers to try and understand there students by researching first hand what students experience and there interactions in the community.
I find it very interesting that you went to the video store. As teachers we often think of movies as something students do in their free time and don’t think of the movie store as an educational place. At least I’ve never thought about the video store as an educational place other than the few educational videos that I’m sure they have. However now that you mentioned that you went to the video store I can think of a lot of ways that math and literacy could be found there and also incorporated into the classroom. Students obviously enjoy watching movies so why not bring that into the classroom. We could ask students to watch their favorite movie and write a summary or retelling of it. We’re working on teaching my 5th graders the difference between retellings and summaries right now and I think they would find the homework much more engaging and exciting if they got to watch a movie of their choice (an appropriate one of course). We could also have students write a new ending to a favorite movie or even write an outline of the movie. Your visit to the video store has given me so many ideas!
ReplyDeleteThe grocery store also is great because I’m sure you were able to see many different people and all ages too. I initially thought of only math at the grocery store but now that I think about it there are so many things to read at the grocery store, there is literacy everywhere! Just to find what you’re looking for you have to read the signs. Reading nutritional labels is also important and involves both math and literacy at the same time. I think students often forget how much they are surrounded by literacy and a simple trip to the grocery store could remind them how important literacy is in their lives.
The security guard at the grocery store would have surprised me too. I think we often take for granted the areas that we live in. It’s sad to think that our students live in an area where a security guard is needed at a grocery store. I wonder if our students realize that not all grocery stores have security guards. They probably think it is normal, but to us it is so odd.
This brings me to the idea of being an outsider. Like you, I also said that I was an outsider of my community because even though I teach there until our community visit I didn’t know much about the community. I think it’s great that we were able to experience our communities and feel more a part of them rather than complete outsiders. Also I find it interesting that we went to such different places to learn about our community, but all of the places were so informative and helpful to familiarizing ourselves with the community. It just goes to show how much there is to learn about every community and that it can’t all be done in one day!
I certainly agree that this assignment will help me to create lessons that my students can relate to. I agree that research is an important part of teaching and teachers often forget that they need to continuously be researching their community and learning about their students’ backgrounds. As the reading said, we are researches and detectives and I think both of these things are very important to our learning process as teachers. The reading also talked about reflecting upon your “aha” moments and sharing those with others. That is exactly what we are able to do on our blog, which is fantastic!